As mayor, Martin O'Malley twisted arms to get the hotel deal done, but the problem was the deal is based on a very rosy outlook, and reality hasn't measured up, I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said.

Dreamed up when times were flush, the city-owned Hilton Hotel opened in 2008, just in time for the U.S. economy to collapse. The hotel has yet to perform as promised.

Recently, the hotel had to do what wasn't supposed to happen: dip into its hotel tax revenues to meet its costs, Miller reported.

On Thursday, Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes, D-District 12, called on city and hotel officials to figure out what could be done to increase the hotel's business and revenues.

"I don't want a fire sale, and no one else does either because if there is a fire sale, the city is still on the hook," Stokes said.

The problem is that principal payments have kicked in on the bonds that were sold to pay for the hotel -- and the costs are climbing.

In 2011, the hotel had to pay $15 million in debt service. That jumped to $17.6 million last year because of the principal payments, and it will be $19.6 million this year, Miller reported. The hotel's revenues continue to fall millions short of the projections that the debt payments were based upon.

The city's finance director, Harry Black, didn't argue that a new game plan is needed by the summer.

"There will come a time when we need to sit down collectively and basically develop multiple strategies and vet them (to see) what makes the best sense for the city," Black said.

City tourism officials said the convention business, which the hotel is intended to serve, is picking up, but City Council members said they are worried about how long the hotel will have to use its reserves and tax revenues to pay its bills.